Anew

52

Tristan woke up in the middle of the night. Hungry.

Which was impossible, since he’d eaten right before he’d gone to bed.

His hunger could only mean one thing: Scarlet was hungry.

He groaned.

His connection to her was getting stronger by the second. And more and more ridiculous. Now he could feel when she was hungry? Ugh.

Tristan stared up at his bedroom ceiling and thought about the girl two floors above him. She was probably still sleeping peacefully, dreaming of Gabriel and rainbows or something.

He closed his eyes in a futile attempt to fall back asleep.

No success.

With a sigh, he got up and trudged upstairs.

He should just stay in bed. He should at least pretend he didn’t feel hungry—he knew he wasn’t.

So, why was he headed into the kitchen to make pancakes?

Because he was weak.

And because Scarlet loved pancakes.

In the kitchen, he quietly got out all the ingredients he needed and tried not to over-think his actions.

Maybe if he hurried and just left a plate of pancakes on the counter, he could go back to bed and pretend he wasn’t a pathetic fool.

He looked at the clock: 1:00 a.m.

That’s what he would do. Make pancakes and flee.